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This paper aims to focus on the insights from the brand journey of Horlicks in India and evolution of the health food drinks (HFD) category.

The paper explores the key reasons for the slowdown in the HFD category and the descent of brand Horlicks in India. It follows the strategic decisions and actions that Horlicks’ parent GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare took over its journey of close to 100 years. It also highlights the cardinal mistakes that it made in distribution networks, brand extensions, etc. and how these could have possibly eroded the brand equity of Horlicks.

Horlicks as a brand made many strategic errors. It frequently and needlessly fiddled with unrelated categories in contrast to its nutrition agenda. It unnecessarily spent on developing brand extensions in unhealthy categories that customers did not value or relate to. It was strategically blinded by the dominance in two geographies and continued to be under-invested in distribution networks in others. In addition, it took too long to read the writing on the wall in terms of growing consumer consciousness about the presence of sugar and fats in health foods. Even when clear signals were available of the impending slowdown the HFD category faced, despite being the market leader in the HFD segment, it showed limited urgency to foster an innovation to bolster the category.

Companies need to focus on a sharp business model and not try to be everything for everyone. Companies that gain valuable insight of what its customers value and design their business model to satisfy these requirements have higher chances of surviving through the weft and warp of time.

The paper considers the context of the highly dynamic fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry in India. It is an industry where for some of the categories like HFD, the brand equity of the mother brand may or may not have a rub-off effect on brand extensions, or dominance in a particular geography may not translate to similar dominance in another geography owing to heterogeneity factor. In such a scenario, brands such as Horlicks, which do not have a consistent and coherent strategy, find it difficult to grow their market share or the category. It provides insights into the common pitfalls in brand development strategy and how it can be avoided.

The purpose of this case is to illustrate the strategic as well as tactical dimensions of comparative advertising. The case can be used to demonstrate that the implications of comparative advertising can be analyzed from different perspectives – consumer behavior, legal framework and business and marketing strategy.

This case was developed solely from secondary sources as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to serve as an endorsement, source of primary data or an illustration of either effective or ineffective management.

While comparative advertising appears to be a tactic by which a message about the brand is communicated to the target audience, it is embedded in business and marketing strategy.

With competition intensifying across industries and product categories, comparative advertising will only increase and this case can provide useful insights into the emerging phenomenon.

A pet phrase of a competent teacher of mathematics years ago was: “Figures by themselves have no meaning.” And everyone knows that statistics are deceitful things. Mr. W. Johnston's batting average in this country this year was 102, although his position in the batting order was never higher than number 11. He is reported indeed to have said of himself: “I am the ferret of the Australian team; they put me in after the rabbits.” But his position at the head of the batting averages could lead to a preposterously erroneous conclusion.

This study aims to compile the present situation of comparative advertisement in Indian markets and the existing legal remedies by citing some factual cases from the industry and important judicial pronouncements.

It is a qualitative research based on primary and secondary source of information. Secondary sources comprise of statutory provisions of relevant act, articles/news items available in academic/trade journals and information generated from Government of India web sites. Primary research involved face-to-face interactions with practising advocates from Delhi High Court and Supreme Court of India in the area of trademarks. Information was collected on parameters related to efficacy, applicability, enforceability, monitoring, and legal issues of trademarks and disparagements.

In India, comparative advertisement is relatively a new concept and the lawful remedies are not that strong as that is other countries. In the absence of the stringent laws, the practice of comparative advertisement has seen many derogatory consequences a few are mentioned here. The paper concludes by giving recommendations on the issues of legal aspects of comparative advertisement in India.

This research paper attempts to provide an overall understanding of judicial environment on comparative advertisement in India which is still at its nascent stage.

Advertising, Marketing Management, Integrated Marketing Communications.

Undergraduate third year/fourth year students. The case is positioned at the beginning of the course.

The case aims to help the students in understanding the concepts of push and pull marketing in the nutritional supplement category which is different from the FMCG sector in terms of the decision-making process and consumer behavior. The brand is bought by the mother, consumed by the kids and endorsed by the doctors. The brand manager faces the dilemma of budget division on push vs pull marketing considering the previous back lash from the doctors when the company shifted toward pull marketing.

By the end of the case, the students should have understood the following concepts: push versus pull marketing, decision-making unit, decision-making process and customer acquisition vs retention efforts.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing

Professor J. C. Drummond concluded his Cantor Lectures in January, 1938, by a quotation from Thomas Muffett's Healths Improvement, published in 1655: “Wherefore let us neither with the impudent, call diet a frivolous knowledge, or a curious science with the imprudent; but embrace it as the leader to perfit health (which as the wise man sayeth) is above gold, and a sound body above all riches.” Diet as the leader to perfect health: let us consider this for a moment in connection with the present subject. The object of the application of science to food is essentially the improvement of the diet of the people of the world. That, at any rate, is the long view of the question, though other motives may actuate certain groups at certain times. To‐day, for example, in this country, the main object of scientific work is to feed the population as efficiently as possible with the food available. Science in Germany for several years has been the handmaiden of the Nazi party and their four years' plan has been far more scientifically developed than any food plan in this country (so far as is at present obvious). It may be taken as certain that science applied to food has improved the diet of the people, although governments and industry have not necessarily always utilised the knowledge gained with this end in view, a position that obviously applies to all new discoveries in science. Scientists engaged in studies concerning food have the development of the knowledge of food chemistry either directly or indirectly as their main object; the majority are not concerned with the application of the results of this knowledge. Before dealing in detail with a few of the particular aspects of the application of chemistry to food, its production, its treatment, its storage and its service, I would briefly summarise the activities of the scientist as follows. He seeks to find the reason for the rule‐of‐thumb methods of the farmer, the stock‐breeder, the baker, the brewer, the physician, the requirements of the consumer himself, and, having found the explanation, he seeks to remove the unknowns, to standardise procedure, and to improve the process. This, I think, sums up the work of the scientist, and in doing this his studies lead him into every phase of the problems of the feeding of the people. Initially the chemist devoted his particular attention to the purity of foods. He did not know what “purity” entailed, neither do we know to‐day; like all knowledge, the science of food is an ever‐widening circle. The theory of “calorie” feeding has given place to the “vitamin” hypothesis, the limitations of which are now being more and more realised; tomorrow or next year a new concept of food and diets will be developed. The studies in the “purity” of food undertaken by the predecessors of the present members of the “Society of Public Analysts and other Analytical Chemists” were of fundamental importance. The objects of that Society, founded in 1874, are not without significance. Broadly they may be stated as follows: The study of analytical chemistry and of questions relating to the adulteration of articles of food, and the promotion of the efficiency and proper administration of the laws relating to the repression of adulteration. For the moment I wish to stress just one of these objects, namely, the study of analytical chemistry. Without reliable methods of analysis, studies in the composition of food are useless; the importance of a large proportion of the work published to‐day has to be discounted because of failure to appreciate the importance of reliable methods of analysis. It is only by the light of careful analysis that the picture of the composition of a food can be thrown on to a screen and examined. Appreciation of the composition of the food is the key which will open the door to a knowledge of its reactions, not only in its production, but also in its digestion by the human being. Without the work of the analysts, the research worker is unable to appreciate the influence of the facts he may discover. In this country the field of scientific investigation is covered by a number of organisations, Government‐controlled, partially Government‐controlled and private (the private consisting of academic workers in universities and colleges and the laboratories of the large commercial firms concerned with food production). Problems of the production of basic foods, of manufacture, of cooking, of storage and preservation and of distribution are all investigated. The science of agriculture is very modern, and it is only in comparatively recent years that chemistry, as such, has been seriously applied to this branch of practical science. In this country, the Rothamsted Experimental Station at Harpenden, founded in 1843, has been foremost in trying to collate scientific data with details of farming practice. Other important research stations, such as the Long Ashton Research Station, the Chipping Campden Station, the Rowett Institute, the National Institute for Research in Dairying, are all products of the present century. These bodies are essentially concerned with the production of the basic materials, fruit, cereals, meat, etc., for the food manufacturer, although this limitation of activity is not applicable everywhere; for example, Long Ashton devotes particular attention to the cider industry, Chipping Campden to canning, and Reading to cheese and other milk products. The next stage, food manufacture in all its phases, is in this country covered by the Food Investigation Board of the D.S.I.R. and by a number of Research Associations which are jointly supported by the Government and by member firms. But by far the greater proportion of scientific work on food manufacture is carried out in the laboratories of the great food firms. The Food Group of the Society of Chemical Industry has been active in arranging meetings concerned with the chemistry of food and has helped considerably to foster free discussion. In problems of distribution the food scientist has collaborated with the Royal Sanitary Institute and the Association of Medical Officers of Health. This collaboration has been of the greatest use, because it is of little worth for the food manufacturer to produce wholesome food if in its distribution the shopkeeper does not take the necessary precautions to see that the food is handed to the purchaser in as good a condition as the precautions taken in its production warrant. Dr. Andrew Borde, the seventeenth‐century physician, wrote in his Breviary of Dyet—“A good cook is half a physician for the chief physic dotli come from the kitchen, wherefore the physician and the cook must consult together.” A striking commentary on this thought has lately appeared in the preface to a book by McCance and Widdowson, published under the regis of the Medical Research Council: “The nutritional dietetic treatment of disease, as well as research into problems of human nutrition, demand an exact knowledge of the chemical composition of food.”

Transdisciplinarity was the core subject of a special issue of Futures in 2004 including numerous cases of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary architectural and urban research and professional practice in several countries. This paper takes stock of achievements during the last 20 years before presenting challenges about bridging persistent gaps between theory, research and practice.

The special issue of Futures is a benchmark for numerous publications about transdisciplinarity in and beyond the multidisciplinary and intersectoral field of built environments. This paper presents a narrative literature review of publications about transdisciplinarity in architecture, urban design and planning since the 1970s.

Transdisciplinarity is still being debated, is often contested, and is not mainstream in research or practice. Like design practice, transdisciplinary inquiry is a creative process involving border work by participants in collaborative projects. Transdisciplinary inquiry is broader in scope and purpose than public participation, participatory action research and team science.

This paper discusses challenges that should be addressed by those in the field of built environments who endorse transdisciplinarity. Based on a half century of contributions about design theory and methods, the paper differentiates inquiry from research as fundamental to transdisciplinary projects.

Nuclear energy is a contested topic, requiring trade-offs in energy independence, ethicality and uncertainty. Anthropogenic climate change complicates these decisions further, with nuclear energy competing with other low-carbon and sustainable energy sources. Decisions about nuclear energy’s role, as part of a sustainable energy system, must be made in cooperation with all stakeholders. However, it is unclear how the public is involved in these decisions in the UK. This study aims to address this gap, exploring the degree to which public participation has occurred in the UK.

This paper conducted a scoping review of public participation in UK nuclear energy decision-making in the context of sustainable energy transitions, where the government retains and promotes nuclear energy as part of a sustainable energy system. Following a systematic literary search, this paper reviewed 28 academic and grey literature documents.

Public participation has primarily been conducted as consultations rather than active participation. There is limited evidence that consultations have meaningfully contributed to politically and socially responsible (i.e. individuals and groups working together for community benefit) decision-making, with public opinion on nuclear energy’s role being divided and is influenced by how it is framed.

Social aspects of nuclear energy development have historically received less attention than environmental and economic elements; the role of engagement and participation is relatively rare. Modern literature reviews in this context are largely absent, a gap this paper originally contribute to. This paper suggest ways in which how effective, inclusive engagement process could contribute to a fairer, responsible decision-making process and energy system in the UK.

In this chapter we apply a range of insights drawn from social science studies of hope amidst contexts of illness, and studies of hope emerging from the sociology of emotions, in critically considering social processes of hoping amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. While much of the health sciences literature on hope emphasises positive outcomes in terms of coping and motivation, we also draw upon various perspectives which denote a dark side of hoping, whereby inequalities and injustices are tolerated, or where feeling rules insidiously coordinate collective hopes in ways which serve various political-economic interests. Reflecting this ambivalence across different literatures, our examples and analyses suggest that hoping as a social process is itself inherently conflicted, dissonant and rife with tensions. As we explore the contradictions of hoping amidst a pandemic, the tensions between expectations and desire, tragedy and optimism, aspiring to act and fatalistic acceptance make apparent that emotions of hope can be neither neatly delineated nor disentangled from a ‘messy’ web of related feelings and framings. We extend our emphasis of these blurry, dissonant and messy aspects of hoping through work on ‘tragic optimism’, following Frankl, wherein wider lifeworlds or imaginaries pertaining to deeply embodied and implicit notions of self and a good life are central to maintaining hope amidst heightened vulnerability and uncertainty. We close by laying out a post-formal approach to hope, which methodologically and conceptually focusses on contradictions and dissonance in narratives of hope, whereby living hopefully always involves living awkwardly with these tensions.

This chapter identifies and analyzes three systemic obstacles to American public policy addressing natural disasters: symbolic obstacles, cognitive obstacles, and structural obstacles. The way we talk about natural disaster, the way we think about the risks of building in hazardous places, and structural aspects of American political institutions all favor development over restraint. These forces have such strength that in the wake of most disasters society automatically and thoughtlessly responds by rebuilding what was damaged or destroyed, even if reconstruction perpetuates disaster vulnerability. Only by addressing each of the obstacles identified are reform efforts likely to succeed.